


The Lawn Party

by belivaird_st



Category: Carol (2015), The Price of Salt - Patricia Highsmith
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-23
Updated: 2017-07-03
Packaged: 2018-11-18 03:19:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11282721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/belivaird_st/pseuds/belivaird_st
Summary: It's summer 1953 and Harge Aird's friends, Cy and Jeanette Harrison, invite Carol and Therese over to a lawn party at their house.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story is going to have TWO PARTS. I don't own Carol, Therese, Cy or Jeanette for characters, but the rest of the party guests, such as the men and women and those high-elite college girls, I do. Just wanted to make it more interesting...

**The Ornaments**

"Aren't those the most _grotesque_ looking things you have ever seen?!" cracks up one of the three ladies that are huddled together outside the right side of Cy and Jeanette Harrison's house - all holding martini glasses of sherry; dressed up in bright solid colors of yellow, pink, and blue. "I've never seen anything like it! How revolting!"

"What is it, Mary? What are they?" questions the second woman. She holds up her silver opera Lorgnette glasses closely to her white powdered face and bends her knees slightly peering down at the five paint-chipped, jolly-looking garden gnomes that are displayed along a stone-pathway of vegetable plants and various types of flowers. The gnomes are made out of ceramic with big, cartoonish-looking blue and green eyes and cheerful widespread, bearded smiles. 

"They must be dwarfs of some kind..." the third woman concludes.

"A _what?_ "

"DWARF!"

"I do say, Helen, that small family of deer over there are quite fetching..."

A few feet away from the gnomes are three plastic woodland deers: a standing buck, a leg-folded sitting white-tail doe, and a sniffing baby fawn. They look more pleasant and affectionate than the five miniature pointy-hat men.

 

**The Party**

The backyard is where the main event is being held, where the rest of the guests and food are located. Carol stands on the fresh, manicured-cut grass between Jeanette and a friend from the downtown beauty parlor, in a royal blue floral, off-shoulder cocktail party dress with her coiffed hair pinned sideways. She smiles and laughs while holding a glass of peach sangria in two hands. Carol twirls ice cubes before bringing the straw to her lips. Every now and then, she makes a few sneak peeks over towards the gaming station where her beloved darling Therese is in the middle of playing a round of horseshoes with some of the men. She looks great with her hair pulled back in a braided chignon and a pale yellow backless styled dress. Carol wants to go over and check on her, but Jeanette keeps her from this desire by pulling her further away to make more introductions.

Therese is thinking about Carol just the same as she tosses underhand and gets a horseshoe directly through the metal stake. She spins around while the men clap and cheer her on. Had Carol been watching her? Nope, because Therese notices there's a numerous amount of women circling her blonde girlfriend now. _And they are all laughing with her, caressing her arms and hands_. A wave of jealous hits Therese instantly and she can't help but feel left out now.

The glassy cold neck of a beer bottle nudges her to continue her turn. No longer in the mood, Therese drops her metal rings and leaves the game. The guys all moan in protest. Therese walks through the grass to the long picnic tables and grabs herself a plate of food. She stands in line for about five minutes to get a hamburger. Cy Harrison, who is taking charge of the grill by serving people hot dogs and burgers, smiles at Therese when she's next in line with a spatula in his hand.

"Having a good time, young lady?" he asks her.

"Yes, I am, " Therese breaks into a smile that aches her cheekbones. 

"Glad to hear it, honey. Burger or dog?"

"Burger, please..."

Cy scoops up a sizzling, well-cooked beef patty with the tip of his spatula and places it on the bottom half of her hamburger bun. "Condiments and salads are back at the tables. Sodas are stored in the cooler," Jeanette's husband explains. 

Therese thanks him and carries her burger back to the tables. Two small children almost crash into her as they run across in front of her, squealing and giggling, barefoot. She staggers a bit before continuing to walk. When she makes it to one table, she layers her burger with a slice of cheese and a glob of ketchup before serving herself some pasta salad, grape tomatoes and small stalks of celery sticks. She moves near the far end and takes a bottle of orange syrup from the cooler wagon.

**The Niece and her Gal Pals**

Therese tries making herself comfortable on the bench at one of the picnic tables, but feels the back of her dress riding up with splintered pieces of wood burning underneath her skin. She picks up her burger and takes a generous bite; loving the taste of soft bread with melted cheese and hamburger meat with ketchup combined. While chewing swallowing, she reaches down for her orange soda. The metal cap is difficult for her to unscrew. She bangs on it at one corner of the table, making it fizz and pour from the outside. 

"Try using a bottle cap opener next time!" says a high, girly voice with a few giggles coming along in between. A scent of strong, rich lust perfume engulfs her now, eventually making her lose her appetite. Blocking up her space like a human gate, stand four young ladies, all wearing the same matching peach color dress with sun hats perched on the sides of their heads. The girl who has spoken, steps in front of Therese with a cigarette between her fingers. She has tight flaming red sausage curls that are styled high above her ears. She smiles and blows cigarette smoke upwards, with her friends all doing the same. Therese bursts into a low series of coughs soon as the smoke travels right in her face and tries covering her food with her hand.

"Whoops. Sorry, sweetie," the corners of the girl's mouth perk into a smile. "How must you sit all by your lonesome self like that? We can give you some company!"

"Audrina, she doesn't know our names," says one of the girls.

"Where are my manners?" the girl touches her collarbone. "My name's Audrina Harrison - Cy and Jeanette's niece. Meet my darling friends - Deenie, Paula, and Lloyd." 

"Therese, " she croaks, making another attempt of trying to open the soda bottle. One of the girls takes it and rips the cap open with a snap. Wincing how sticky the bottle is, she pours the soda into a paper cup and passes it down to the redface Therese.

"Thank you, Deenie, " Audrina says. She stares at Therese for the longest time before taking a seat down next to her. "So tell us about yourself, sweetie. What do you do for fun?"

"I work, mostly," Therese mumbles. She doesn't like how close Audrina sits or the fact that the rest of the girls are blocking her view from the rest of the party.

"What sort of work do you _do?_ " asks Deenie. She is the tallest with honey blonde hair and a mole below the left side of her jaw.

"I've just been promoted as a film editor for the New York Times," Therese says. She puts her plate of food down, knowing damn well she wasn't going to eat it.

"The New York Times? Does that mean you take pictures of famous Hollywood stars, like Gloria Swanson?" gapes Paula, a darkhaired, freckled girl with a huge gap between her teeth. 

"No, nothing that glamorous," Therese smiles.

"She probably only takes pictures of dumb birds and trees!" Audrina chortles. 

"What do you girls do? Are you all still in school?" Therese questions. 

"We just finished our sophomore year of college," Lloyd shrugs.

"It's the pits," Paula agrees.

The girls keep chatting away with Therese about school life, boys and photography. The conversation gets deeper with depth ending a few rounds of laughter. Therese slowly opens up more with the young ladies, having no idea that she and the rest are being watched. Just a couple of feet ahead on the patio, Carol stares at the five girls, sucking the last few drops of her drink, no longer listening to Jeanette's opinion on speedboats. In fact, she feels more intrigued by Therese's company and wonders if her angel would ever look her way...


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's PART 2 and I am so ashamed at myself for taking so long posting this. It's over and done now. My mind goes a lot faster than worded online documents. If anyone still remembers and reads this story, I thank you. I'm such a slow poke. I know...

**The Lake**

"There goes Carol staring off into space again," Jeanette sighs, making the other women stare with their cold, alcoholic beverages around their tight-fitted circle. They watch the blonde give a sudden jerk movement with her head as if she's just been waking from a dream.

"Sorry, Jeanette. What were you-?"

"Hey Jeanie, isn't that your niece over by those picnic tables?" one of the ladies rudely cuts Carol off. 

"Yes, Margaret, she is." Jeanette puts her straw in her mouth, ice cubes tinkling inside the tiny short glass.

"You have a niece?" Carol says. "Which one is she?"

"The one talking to Therese. Her name's Audrina, and she's a bit of a spoiled girl." Jeanette takes a second to brush cigarette ashes off the front of her turquoise-gold pattern skirt. "She's been living with Cy and I for the past two weeks now, because her parents kicked her out for sneaking off in the middle of the nights with her boyfriend driving her father's car. I don't know what to do with her. She spends most of her time hanging around her friends. She is Cy's half-brother's kid, so I guess you can say that she's more of his niece than mine..."

"I see," Carol smirks. Her nails click lightly against the rim of her tiny glass and takes another look back to see Therese and the four girls making their way across the lawn back around the front of the house. Therese returns moments after and sprints over towards Carol's direction on the patio. 

"Hey you," Carol hugs Therese by the waist and nuzzles her on the cheek affectionately. "I was beginning to think you forgot about me! What are you up to?"

"Is Audrina being nice to you?" Jeanette pipes in. "If not, you must say so, and I can straighten her out. That girl stirs trouble, Therese, so keep a close eye for her and her friends.”

"There's no trouble at all. They all seem pretty nice to me," Therese grins. "They've just invited me to take a walk with them to the lake that's not too far from here."

"A lake?" Carol's smile falters. 

"With this miserable heat, that's not a bad idea," Jeanette half-shrugs. "How long will you girls be gone?"

"Not too long," Therese mumbles. "Probably be back before it gets dark."

"Make sure you stay off the roads," Jeanette instructs. "And if you're going along the train tracks through the woods be extra careful!"

"Wait a minute, hold on a second," Carol takes Therese by the hand and pulls her away from Jeanette and everyone else on the patio so that the two of them are alone.

"If you're leaving, what happens to me? What am I suppose to do?" Carol questions. 

"I guess you can come with us, too," Therese answers feebly.

A muscle twitches the side of Carol's jaw. She closes her eyes, slowly shaking her head. "That's not the point I'm trying to make, my dear. I don't think you realize you're about to go running off with a bunch of school girls you barely know; when you can stay here with me so I won't be lonely..."

"You have Jeanette remember?" a spark of anger hits Therese now. "I keep forgetting that it's okay for you to socialize with women your own age, but not okay if I do it?"

Carol rubs the side of her forehead. "I didn't say that, Therese. From what I've heard, Audrina is not a very nice person. I just have this bad feeling-"

"She hasn't done anything wrong! Stop making these ridiculous assumptions on her!" Therese snaps.

Carol bites her lip, ruining her lipstick. She doesn't like where this discussion is heading or the fact that Therese is upsetting her. She thinks up an idea that will hopefully clear up the tension.

"Tell you what. Instead of the lake, how about if you and I can find a special spot to spend time together for the rest of the party?" she smiles a hopeful smile and reaches out to caress Therese on the cheek, but the younger woman childishly whips her head away from Carol's fingers, shattering her heart into a million of pieces. 

" _Therese_..." Carol's face crumples now and tries to blink stinging hot tears away.

"I'm not changing my mind, Carol. They're all waiting for me, so I better get going," Therese tells her firmly. "Don't fret so much. It'll be okay." She then walks past Carol to catch up with the girls around the side of the house never looking back.

Carol sniffles and blindly begins to carry her drink to find a way to get rid of it. Jeanette finds her crying on the porch swing minutes later and throws her arms around her shoulders in a comforting gesture.

^^

"Is everything all right?" Audrina asks Therese as soon as she approaches the sidewalk next to a line of cars in front of the Harrison house.

"Yeah, let's go," Therese replies, but somewhere deep inside her feels guilty and sad for breaking Carol's heart from the start.

Lloyd waves a mosquito away from her pair of glasses and offers Therese a cigarette during the walk. Relieved, Therese accepts it and becomes more pleased when she gets help lighting it.

The sidewalk eventually ends up a fork in two different directions. One road leads you to more neighborhoods and streets. The second road becomes a set of railroad tracks. The girls walk along the metal railroad ties and laugh in between whoever loses their balance first. Therese is the most fascinated one on the journey since she's had a love for trains her whole life. She is thankful that she and the others don't have to worry about any trains coming after them, because the railroad services are shut down on Sundays. 

Entering the woods isn't fun for any of the girls. Audrina and her friends whine and complain throughout the entire hike over the whizzing, whirling mosquitoes, the dry mud dirtying their shoes below on the ground, and the constant struggle of pushing tree branches back with some slipping and whacking them in the face anyway. Soon a narrow, dirt trail leads them to a clearing with the lake coming into a perfect view. 

The beach looks abandoned and empty by itself the moment the girls arrive. Therese sees a tall white lifeguard chair that she knows it would be the best spot for her to take pictures or use a pair of binoculars. She doesn't have one or brought her camera, unfortunately.

Audrina and her friends pull their hats off, drop their purses and unbuckle their shoes into a small pile on the sand. Deenie and Lloyd both run straight into the water ankle deep; kicking and splashing at each other. Paula follows them with a more slower, graceful stride. Audrina grabs Therese by the wrist and pulls her forward. 

"Come dip your feet in the water with me!" the girl commands. 

Therese, giggling, loves the cool blow of the wind across her face and feels loose strands of her hair come undone her chignon. She vows to fix it later, but right now she doesn't care. She stands next to Audrina by the shore of the water and takes a few seconds slipping off her strapped shoes. She dips both feet in; icy coldness swallowing up her bare, sweaty toes.

"The water's so refreshing!" Deenie exclaims.

"It's a bit murky," Paula scowls. 

"Hell with it! I want to go swimming!" Lloyd shouts, and begins reaching the back of her dress to tug the zipper down.

"Lloyd! What on earth-?" Audrina outbursts, but she's laughing and steps further in the lake, reaching behind the back of her dress, too.

Therese watches Deenie and Paula doing the same thing as their sisters and realizes in horror that the girls are undressing themselves, throwing their dresses all over the beach, lying and sitting down naked in the water in front of her.

"What are you doing? All of you stop it!" Therese slaps her hands over her face to cover up the view of pale collarbones, droopy breasts, freckled midriffs and nicely trimmed, hairy-

"Oh come now, Therese," Audrina speaks in a soft, baby voice. "You must not be afraid, sweetie. We have the whole lake to ourselves!"

"And we're all girls, remember? We all have the same body parts, so there's no harm done," Lloyd points out.

"I feel so freeing, it's marvelous!" Paula cracks up.

"Please. All of you just put your clothes back on," Therese begs with her hand still covering her face. 

Audrina snorts and flicks water in the air with her left foot. "Why should we, Therese? I thought you, of all people, would _love_ seeing naked girls! We know the truth about you, sweetie! We know that you're a fairy-fag!"

The word hits her right in the gut. Therese feels her throat tightening up. "H-how-? Who told-?"

"Carol Aird's ex-husband, Harge, comes over to have dinner and play poker with my uncle and aunt several times during the summer. He drinks too much bourbon and spills a lot of dishy secrets!" Audrina explains, making the girls snicker. "He mentioned all about you and how you met his ex-wife. She's here at the party tonight and looks ghostly pale!"

"I bet her kisses taste like codfish!" Deenie says loudly. 

The girls laugh it up a few more rounds until Therese snaps, " _Shut your filthy mouths, all of you! You have no right to judge us! To make fun! How dare you insult Carol like that! How could you?_ " With tears now streaming down her cheeks, Therese blindly slips her heels back on and makes a run for it back to the woods. She hears the continuous faint, distant laughter of the girls and wants to flee from their hurtful, cruel ways.

**The Wrong Side of The Tracks**

Therese swipes and whacks tree branches away from her blurry vision as she flees further and further into the forest, trying to make her way back to the railroad tracks. She can't stop crying and thinking about Carol and how right she was. So right about everything! How also very sorry, so sorry for the way she treated her and from now on, she would always listen and believe every word the blonde would say.

Therese lets out a small, fatal cry as she trips on a few tangled roots below the trunk of a tree, and stumbles headfirst into the dry, earthy ground. Moaning, she presses her hands on either side of her face and lifts her head up. There's a small cut slashed across her cheekbone that's bleeding a bit. Both of her kneecaps are scraped and bruised. Her backless yellow dress is torn. Sobbing, she picks herself up and continues moving. She looks around her with her hair fallen over her face, trying hard not to come to the conclusion she might be lost and scared. 

At last! She made it to the tracks! But which way was back into town? Was it left or was it right? She couldn't remember...

 _I think we go left_. Therese stumbles onto the set of tracks and continues walking. She grabs a tatter strip of her dress, hoping that maybe she could at least save some of the material to sew something better. 

Suddenly she hears her name being called behind her within some great distance. She recognizes Audrina's high, girly voice. She and her friends are trying to catch up. Therese walks faster and ignores the soreness everywhere all over her body. If she runs and falls flat on her face one more time, she won't have anymore strength getting up. The girls soon catch up with her, running each sides of her, all dressed up in their hats and shoes again.

"Therese! What happened to you? You look like a wreck!" Deenie exclaims.

"I fell down. What else?" Therese grumbles. She keeps her head up with her eyes focusing straight ahead. She feels the clamminess of Audrina's hand on her shoulder and wants to roll it off, but she's too weak and tired to do so.

"You shouldn't have run off and left us behind at the beach like that, sweetie. We could've lost you!" the niece exclaims.

"Don't try to pretend that all of you care about me," Therese snaps. "And stop calling me 'sweetie'!"

"Audrina, it's getting dark now," Paula says. "Are you sure this is the right way back? Did we go the wrong way by mistake?"

"If we stop and turn back around, it'll be nighttime for sure! We just have to keep moving, girls!" she replies sharply.

So they do, but the five of them pretty much had it with their adventure. They complain more about the mosquitoes biting them and the heat not being cool enough and how it seemed like they weren't making any progress getting back into town, because the train tracks kept going and going never ending. The afternoon sun slips away and gives off the sky a purplish-blue color with the trees turning into black silhouettes and the sounds of crickets serenading deep inside the bushes. 

"I wish we brought some towels," Lloyd pouts now, hugging her arms together. "I'm not drying quick enough! I've got lake water and sand in my shoes!"

"I can't wait to go back inside and have some of the desserts that were brought to the party," Deenie sighs dreamily.

"I can't wait to get off these god-awful tracks!" Paula adds.

Therese closes her eyes, wishing for the other girls to shut up. She, herself, personally couldn't wait for Carol to drive her back home to their warm, safe apartment, so then she could fix herself a bath and wash away all the dirtiness and tend to her wounds and go to bed in her cotton pajamas and forget this day had ever happened in the first place. 

"Wait a second - was this tower here before? Does anybody remember seeing the interlocking tower on our way to the lake?" Therese's voice sounds dry and brittle from shouting so much earlier. She stops and stares at the wooden rectangular tower that's a few feet in front of her where the train engineers work hard on a daily basis with the control system for all the trains.

"The inter-what now?" Lloyd repeats.

"The interlocking tower. It's where they keep track of the trains, so that way they can travel their destinations without getting into any accidents," Therese explains.

"Of course we didn't see this dumb tower on our way here!" Audrina snaps. "We've been going the wrong way this entire time!"

"And now it's much darker than before," Paula wails. "We're lost!"

"We can just turn the other way," Therese mutters.

"Hey look over there!" Deenie points out to whatever's behind them. "I see lights! That's not a train coming, is it?"

Therese whirls her head around and sees three or four orbs of white lights. They bobble up and down, back and forth. "It's not a train, those are flashlights!"

As if she been heard, a long shrill of a whistle gives off and the lights come closer, showing a couple of wide-grinning, comical young men. It was the guys from the party that played several rounds of horseshoe.

"Well how about that? We just found what we were looking for!" one of the guys boasts happily.

"You girls have no sense of direction," laughs another. "We've come to the rescue, fair ladies! Da-Dum-Dee-Dah!"

"Just take us back, Jerry," Audrina snaps.

**The Gazebo**

Most of the guests from the party have gone home already by the time Therese makes it back to the Harrison house. Audrina and her friends all barrel upstairs inside to wash up before touching any desserts. Therese ignores the gasps and wide-eyed stares she gets by the looks of her, and searches for Carol. She finds Jeanette at the kitchen counter in the middle of serving blueberry coffeecake and vanilla bean ice cream to a young couple with their black cocker spaniel snoozing underneath the square breakfast table they're sitting at.

"Jeanette, have you seen Carol?" Therese asks quietly.

"Yeah, she's - Good heavens, child! What happened to your dress? Your face? You look like you ran into a wood chipper!" Jeanette answers, amazed.

"Please, just tell me where Carol is," Therese begs, feeling her eyes brimming with tears. "I need to talk to her."

"She went to the gazebo a couple of blocks from here. Let me show you where the washroom is, so you can at least clean yourself first-"

"No thank you, I'm fine," Therese cuts off quickly and darts back outside.

The gazebo is located at the very center of a large, open field that belongs to a friendly town banker, who lets the public spend as much time as they want on it. Carol sits alone on a wicker chair with a paper plate of cake and ice cream. A string of white garden lights hang above her around the perimeter of the sphere-shaped roof and the smooth-cut, roman arches. Therese becomes in awe of her lonesome beauty and peaceful presence. She watches Carol stab a chunk of coffeecake with her fork and pop it into mouth before looking up; ice catching with fire.

"Oh Therese... What have those girls done to you?" Carol's hand touches her mouth the moment Therese makes her way up the steps onto the wooden platform and winces as she carefully sits in another wicker chair across from her lover.

"Let's just say I did this to myself," Therese replies somberly. "I treated you horribly before and this what I get. I'm so sorry, Carol. You were right about Audrina and her friends." 

"I should've accepted the fact that you have the right to hang out with other people," Carol gives a lopsided grin. "I get jealous when I see you with other females..."

"Well seeing you today with those Tupperware ladies wasn't so easy for me either. I don't like to share you..."

Carol laughs softly and gestures for Therese to come over. The younger woman does, taking a seat right on top of the blonde's lap. Carol offers her dessert plate and Therese takes it, enjoying the cold sweet taste of vanilla cream rolling down her burning throat.

"I must smell terrible," she says now.

Carol buries her nose on Therese's bare arm, inhaling the scent of blood, dirt and sweat. 

"You do, but I still love you, my smelly angel," Carol purrs. She locks her arms around Therese's waist and peppers her with soft kisses.

-END-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well that's that, as Carol Aird likes to say. I've gotten so many other ideas with other stories throughout the process of this one. Hopefully I can pick up the pace and not feel so overwhelmed next time. Thank you readers x I will continue more tales of Carol & Therese!!!


End file.
